May Tidbits

We've got a few odds and ends to share with you on this fine May day. First, one of the girls who attends our weekly meeting was baptized this last week. Her name is Hui Ming and she's been a member of our favorite Chinese Christian student group for quite a while. She went with some people from that group to a house church in Hangzhou to be baptized. We freely admit that we were johnny come lately to her life and we had a very small part in her decision to be baptized, but we still rejoice! In the photo below, Hui Ming is the girl on the very right who's coloring eggs.

In other news, Dale is in the middle of a lengthy Chinese medicine treatment for a foot problem. Dale got the problem when he was out door knocking in a Nicaraguan monsoon 10 years ago and it's never gone away, despite two bouts of Western medicine over the years. So a couple of weeks ago, we went to a local Chinese medicine store and saw the doctor. The doctor looked at Dale's foot, asked a couple of questions, and then wrote out a prescription with 10 or 12 different things. Finally, we received a paper sack that was tied up tightly. The doctor kept screaming at us as we left the pharmacy, "Don't eat the medicine! Just let it soak in rice vinegar for a week and then soak your foot in it every day. Don't eat the medicine!" When we got home, we finally got to check out the medicine. There were a bunch of snake skins, 2 giant dried centipedes, sliced nuts, various kinds of bark, and other stuff that I couldn't identify. The week long soaking period is done and now Dale's sticking his foot into his magic medicine vinegar for 20 minutes every night. Seth and Lisa think it smells awful. Caleb says it smells great. We'll let you know if it works!

Last up is our kids' new found love of yoga. Seth followed Lisa while she did yoga a while back and then recently they both asked if they could do some yoga by themselves. I guess it's all the dancing and group activities they do at kindergarten, but they're both amazingly good at following the yoga DVD that they watched. I'm no expert, but I think the move shown below is the "Downward Facing Dog".

Prayer Answered: Dan and Patrick Baptized

Several years ago Patrick read a book by a Professor Xu on the best method to learn English. From what I understand Professor Xu teaches students to spend many hours listening and reading classic English literature. So Dan and Patrick tell me all the time about Dickens, Shakespeare, Ben Hur, and Gone With the Wind. According to Professor Xu, the key to it all is to understand the Bible. Patrick bought a King James Bible and downloaded a Bible audio reading from the internet. Patrick said he listened to and read the entire Bible in just over a week, 12 hours per day.

I met Dan during a short speech I gave in my university, would have been October 2011. At that time Dan said his religion was to believe in truth, beauty, and kindness from the ideas of some German philosopher? Dan’s friend (Patrick) challenged, “That is not a religion.” Patrick gave Dan a King James Bible and stated “I read this and I became a Christian.” It is encouraging to see Dan and Patrick’s friendship. Patrick really challenges Dan with the truth of Jesus Christ.

Dan and Patrick were baptized the night of April 17 in the Hardins home. Lots of people came to celebrate: Elaine, Shane, Shelly, James, Clint and LinLi, Taffy and others and seekers like Shaq, Bill, Mark, Candy, and the Hardin's friends the Zheng family.

Dan and Patrick are so excited. They have a contagious excitement. The next night I heard them in the English corner telling a few students, “The Bible is the key to understanding English.”

I encouraged them to write down their feelings so they could remember many years from now. They wrote for their own memories, and they also wrote me these text messages.

Patrick: Joshua, I remember the baptism tonight. I appreciate what you and GaoYan did. I find I am excited, so excited I can hardly hold the pen in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that only a faithful man can feel, a faithful man starting his new life.

Dan: Hi Joshua. After getting baptized I realize following Jesus is good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. Thank you and your wife for helping me follow Jesus in the past 6 months.

Before Dan had planned to move to Singapore “this month” to work. But now he is confused. He wants to learn more and more about Jesus and the Bible with our church family.

English Corner Fun (and we always thought that was an oxymoron )

On April 27th, all three Clarks boldly braved the waters of English Corner, and lived to tell about it. Our school only has one every now and again, so when they do have it, it is exciting and well-attended. There were around 100 folks.

They had some exciting ice breakers: hula hoop contest, cake eating contest, etc. Jason played guitar, too! "You Are My Sunshine" was the crowd favorite!

Finally, here is Wang Hao, who went with us that night. [Phoebe had had about enough by this point!] Anyway, we all had a pretty nice time, and got to talk for a long time with some pretty nice people, especially a guy named L.J., and another one named Michael.

A busy month

Looking back over April, it was great...and just packed. Had quite a bit of rain, and lots of beautiful days too. Spent so much time outside. Started out with the very fruitful celebration of Easter that everyone else has mentioned, then when we got back to Shaoxing, decided to pick up the pace a bit and get some more momentum...ate out or together at home with about 10 different folks over the course of three weeks, some were believers, some were just acquaintances that we wanted to gauge their interest level. Wang Hao and Lucky are both progressing nicely, we did several studies and conversations with them over the course of the month and they began worshipping with us on Sundays. Started reading Tim Kellor's the Reason for God with Grace. Jason played music with some friends in a coffee shop one night last week, and it gave Cecely a good chance to talk with some of the girls who had come there to listen.Ended the month with a nice overnight visit with Joanna, and a visit on Sunday for worship and lunch afterwords with Arily and King. Very impressed with Arily these days. Says she has been attending church in Hangzhou quite often. She and King both seem to enjoy the study more than previously. This month we have done more Bible lessons with Phoebe, attempting to teach her some key characters and simple memory verses. Also, we have been looking into preschools for her in the fall, and been working on potty training her. It is all going fairly well, but pray for all three of us, because she is quite spirited. We enjoyed April, and look forward to the blessings that we trust May will bring.

A Very Shaoxing Easter

Easter? Are we supposed to talk about Easter? OK, I'll talk about Easter! While the rest of the team was rockin' it in Hangzhou we had a much smaller event for Easter in Shaoxing. We did the usual with egg-dyeing, little triangle sandwiches, and a humongous rabbit shaped cake. I don't know about your family, but that's definitely a tradition in ours!

More importantly, we all sat together to experience the true feeling of Easter. We read the story of Jesus' crucifixion and then we listened to a dramatic reading of Jesus' resurrection. As we listened, we all sat with eyes closed, trying to picture the faces of Jesus, the people he met, and their various expressions. I tried to share that it was completely natural to feel shocked, doubtful, amazed, grateful, etc. Jesus' friends felt all of those things and it's OK for us to feel them today, too. (Quick side note - loved the Clear Creek Easter video on Facebook!) We then talked some about why it matters for us today that Jesus rose from the dead.

There were about 20 people who came for the Easter party, most of them people who have already been coming to our weekly Bible study. We pray that it was a good chance for them to learn what is at the very heart of our faith and why it's so important for our lives today!

Caleb with Zhang Wen Qiang - a student Lisa's been studying with for more than a semester

An Easter huddle

The famous Taylor/Bailey Easter Bunny Cake

Easter Sunday

Adding on to Jennifer's Easter post.

Dan acted as Chinese Thomas and I acted as English Thomas. For costumes we simply used a sheet of poster board tied at the waist. Thomas talked about knowing Jesus the miracle worker, good teacher, and friend. Thomas went on to talk about crucifixion, resurrection, and doubting. Finally Thomas saw and felt with his hands the proof of Jesus Lord and God.

Elaine organized the children in decorating Easter bags. There were about 40 children and 400 eggs. The kids sprinted across the garden and all the eggs were found in three minutes. We put a message inside: 耶稣复活了 Jesus is risen!

Meanwhile, Frank was writing a poem. If you know Frank, did you know he can write poetry? His poem is so good. I offered a weak translation to get the main idea, but Frank’s composition is a refreshing, inspiring memory of this Easter Sunday.

胜日传经渌水旁

桃红柳绿满园芳

春风似是解人意

吹着福音散四方

Superb day spread the gospel by green water

Peach red willow green fill the garden fragrant

Spring breeze like understanding people’s wish

Blows the good news spread in all directions.

I am glad I uploaded these pictures the other day.  I would have been extra sad to loose them.  

We had a great turnout at our annual Easter egg hunt and picnic.  It  seems that this party gets bigger and better every year.  

This year we had more than 80 people come! It was great!

 

They set up tents for the little kids to play in.

Caleb got a coloured Easter egg.  (Jon told him to, for the picture)

Every one sat on blanket while we tried to sing some songs.

Then Josh and Dan told the Easter story from the perspective of Thomas.

Then they went to hunt eggs.  It was a mob.

Joy found one!

This kid did really well! 

There were more than 400 eggs hidden. We filled plastic eggs with candy and small toys and a piece of paper that says, "Jesus is risen!"  In English and Chinese.

Then we ate! We had a buffet. 

There were people from different believing groups from across the city and also several friends that are not belivers yet.

It was a really nice time.  It was a lot of fun.  Gao Yan and Josh did a wonderful job organizing everything.

We look forward to it again next year.